Just now I heard of a shooting-match in the neighbourhood, right between where I lived and my girl’s house; and I determined to kill two birds with one stone, to go to the shooting match first, and then to see her. I therefore made the Quaker believe I was going to hunt for deer, as they were pretty plenty about in those parts; but, instead of hunting them, I went straight on to the shooting-match, where I joined in with a partner and we put in several shots for the beef. I was mighty lucky and when the match was over I had won the whole beef. This was on a Saturday and my success had put me in the finest humour in the world. So I sold my part of the beef for five dollars in the real grit, for I believe that was before bank-notes were invented; at least, I had never heard of any. I now started on to ask for my wife for, though the next Thursday was our wedding day, I had never said a word to her pa rents about it. I had always dreaded the under taking so bad that I had put the evil hour off and, it seemed to me, that it was more than any human creature could endure. It struck me perfectly speechless for some time and made me feel so weak that I thought I should sink down. I however recovered from my shock after a little and rose and started without any cere mony, or even bidding any body good-bye. The young woman followed me out to the gate and entreated me to go on to her father’s and said she would go with me. She said the young man, who was going to marry her sister, had got his license and had asked for her, but she assured me her father and mother both preferred me to him and that she had no doubt but that, if I would go on, I could break off the match. But I found I could go no further. My heart was bruised and my spirits broken down; so I bid her farewell and turned my lonesome and miserable steps back again homeward, concluding that I was only born for hardships, misery, and disappointment. I now began to think that in making me, it was entirely forgotten to make my mate; that I was born odd and should always remain so and that nobody would have me.
But all these reflections did not satisfy my mind, for I had no peace day nor night for several.
I CONTINUED in this down-spirited situation for a good long time, until one day I took my rifle and started a hunting. While out, I made a call at the house of a Dutch widow, who had a daughter that was well enough as to smartness, but she was as ugly as a stone fence. She was, however, quite talkative and soon begun to laugh at me about my disappointment.
She seemed disposed, though, to comfort me as much as she could and, for that purpose, told me to keep in good heart, that “there was as good fish in the sea as had ever been caught out of it.” I doubted this very much, but whether or not I was certain that she was not one of them, for she was so homely that it almost give me a pain in the eyes to look at her.
But I couldn’t help thinking that she had in tended what she had said as a banter for me to court her! The last thing in creation I could have thought of doing. I felt little inclined to talk on the subject, it is true; but, to pass off the time, I told her I thought I was born odd and that no fellow to me could be found. She protested against this and said if I would come to their reaping, which was not far off, she would show me one of the prettiest little girls there I had ever seen. She added that the one who had deceived me was nothing to be compared with her. I didn’t believe a word of all this, for I had thought that such a piece of flesh and blood as she was had never been manufactured and never would again. I agreed with her, though, that the little varment had treated me so bad that I ought to forget her and yet I couldn’t do it. I concluded the best way to accomplish it was to cut out again and see if I could find any other that would answer me and so I told the Dutch girl I would be at the reaping and would bring as many as I could with me.
I employed my time pretty generally in giving information of it, as far as I could, until the day came and I then offered to work for my old friend, the Quaker, two days, if he would let his bound boy go with me one to the reaping. He refused and reproved me pretty considerable roughly for my proposition and said if he was in my place he wouldn’t go, that there would be a great deal of bad company there and that I had been so good a boy, he would be sorry for me to get a bad name. But I knowed my promise to the Dutch girl and I was resolved to fulfil it so I shouldered my rifle and started by myself. When I got to the place, I found a large company of men and women and among them an old Irish woman who had a great deal to say. I soon found out from my Dutch girl that this old lady was the mother of the little girl she had promised me, though I had not yet seen her. She was in an out house with some other youngsters and had not yet made her appearance. Her mamma, however, was no way bashful. She came up to me and began to praise my red cheeks and said she had a sweetheart for me. I had no doubt she had been told what I come for and all about it. In the evening I was introduced to her daughter and, I must confess, I was plaguy well pleased with her from the word go. She had a good coun tenance and was very pretty, and I was full bent on making up an acquaintance with her.
It was not long before the dancing commenced and I asked her to join me in a reel. She very readily consented to do so and after we had finished our dance, I took a seat alongside of her and entered into a talk. I found her very interesting; while I was setting by her, making as good a use of my time as I could. Her mother came to us and, very jocularly, called me her son-in-law. This rather confused me, but I looked on it as a joke of the old lady and tried to turn it off as well as I could. I took care to pay as much attention to her through the evening as I could. I went on the old saying of salting the cow to catch the calf. I soon become so much pleased with this little girl that I began to think the Dutch girl had told me the truth when she said there was still good fish in the sea.
We continued our frolic till near day when we joined in some plays, calculated to amuse youngsters. I had not often spent a more agreeable night. In the morning, however, we all had to part and I found my mind had become much bet ter reconciled than it had been for a long time. I went home to the Quaker’s and made a bargain to work with his son for a low-priced horse. He was the first one I had ever owned and I was to work six months for him. I had been engaged very closely five or six weeks when this little girl run in my mind so that I concluded I must go and see her and find out what sort of people they were at home. I mounted my horse and away I went to where she lived and when I got there I found her father a very clever old man and the old woman as talkative as ever. She wanted badly to find out all about me and as I thought to see how I would do for her girl. I had not yet seen her about and I began to feel some anxiety to know where she was.
In a short time, however, my impatience was relieved as she arrived at home from a meeting to which she had been. There was a young man with her, who I soon found was disposed to set up claim to her, as he was so attentive to her that I could hardly get to slip in a word edgeways. I began to think I was barking up the wrong tree again but I was determined to stand up to my rack, fodder or no fodder. And so, to know her mind a little on the subject, I began to talk about starting, as I knowed she would then show some sign, from which I could understand which way the wind blowed. It was then near night and my distance was fifteen miles home. At this my little girl soon began to indicate to the other gen tleman that his room would be the better part of his company. At length she left him and came to me and insisted mighty hard that I should not go that evening and, indeed, from all her actions and the attempts she made to get rid of him, I saw that she preferred me all holler. But it wasn’t long before I found trouble enough in another quarter. Her mother was deeply enlisted for my rival and I had to fight against her influence as well as his. But the girl herself was the prize I was fighting for and as she welcomed me, I was determined to lay siege to her, let what would happen. I commenced a close courtship, having cornered her from her old beau while he set off, looking on, like a poor man at a country frolic, all the time almost gritting his teeth with pure disappointment. But he didn’t dare to attempt any thing more, for now I had gotten a start, and I looked at him every once in a while as fierce as a wild-cat. I stayed with her until M
on day morning, and then I put out for home.
It was about two weeks after this that I was sent for to engage in a wolf hunt, where a great number of men were to meet with their dogs and guns, and where the best sort of sport was expected. I went as large as life, but I had to hunt in strange woods and in a part of the country which was very thinly inhabited. While I was out it clouded up and I began to get scared. In a little while I was so much so that I didn’t know which way home was nor any thing about it. I set out the way I thought it was, but it turned out with me, as it always does with a lost man, I was wrong and took exactly the contrary direction from the right one. And for the information of young hunters, I will just say, in this place, that when ever a fellow gets bad lost, the way home is just the way he don’t think it is. This rule will hit nine times out of ten. I went ahead, though, about six or seven miles, when I found night was coming on fast but at this distressing time I saw a little woman streaking it along through the woods like all wrath, and so I cut on too, for I was determined I wouldn’t lose sight of her that night any more. I run on till she saw me and she stopped; for she was as glad to see me as I was to see her, as she was lost as well as me. When I came up to her, who should she be but my little girl that I had been paying my respects to. She had been out hunting her father’s horses and had missed her way and had no knowledge where she was or how far it was to any house or what way would take us there. She had been travelling all day and was mighty tired and I would have taken her up and toasted her if it hadn’t been that I wanted her just where I could see her all the time, for I thought she looked sweeter than sugar; and by this time I loved her almost well enough to eat her.
At last I came to a path that I know’d must go somewhere and so we followed it till we came to a house at about dark. Here we stayed all night. I set up all night courting and in the morning we parted. She went to her home, from which we were distant about seven miles, and I to mine, which was ten miles off.
I now turned in to work again and it was about four weeks before I went back to see her. I continued to go occasionally, until I had worked long enough to pay for my horse, by putting in my gun with my work to the man I had pur chased from; and then I began to count whether I was to be deceived again or not. At our next meeting we set the day for our wedding and I went to my father’s and made arrangements for an infair and returned to ask her parents for her. When I got there, the old lady appeared to be mighty wrathy; and when I broached the subject, she looked at me as savagely as a meat axe. The old man appeared quite willing and treated me very clever. But I hadn’t been there long be fore the old woman as good as ordered me out of her house. I thought I would put her in mind of old times and see how that would go with her. I told her she had called me her son-in-law before I had attempted to call her my mother-in-law and I thought she ought to cool off. But her Irish was up too high to do any thing with her, so I quit trying. All I cared for was to have her daughter on my side, which I knowed was the case then; but how soon some other fellow might knock my nose out of joint again, I couldn’t tell. I however felt rather insulted at the old lady and I thought I wouldn’t get married in her house. And so I told her girl that I would come the next Thursday and bring a horse, bridle, and saddle for her and she must be ready to go. Her mother declared I shouldn’t have her; but I know’d I should, if somebody else didn’t get her before Thursday. I then started, bidding them good day, and went by the house of a justice of the peace, who lived on the way to my father’s, and made a bargain with him to marry me.
When Thursday came, all necessary arrange ments were made at my father’s to receive my wife and so I took my eldest brother and his wife and another brother and a single sister that I had and two other young men with me, and cut out to her father’s house to get her. We went on until we got within two miles of the place, where we met a large company that had heard of the wedding and were waiting. Some of that company went on with my brother and sister and the young man I had picked out to wait on me. When they got there, they found the old lady as wrathy as ever. However the old man filled their bottle and the young men returned in a hurry. I then went on with my company, and when I arrived I never pretended to dismount from my horse but rode up to the door and asked the girl if she was ready. She said she was. I then told her to light on the horse I was leading and she did so. Her father, though, had gone out to the gate and when I started he commenced persuading me to stay and marry there; that he was entirely willing to the match, and that his wife, like most women, had entirely too much tongue; but that I oughtn’t to mind her. I told him if she would ask me to stay and marry at her house, I would do so. With that he sent for her, and after they had talked for some time out by themselves, she came to me and looked at me mighty good and asked my pardon for what she had said and invited me stay. She said it was the first child she had ever had to marry and she couldn’t bear to see her go off in that way; that if I would light, she would do the best she could for us. I couldn’t stand every thing and so I agreed and we got down and went in. I sent off then for my parson and got married in a short time, for I was afraid to wait long for fear of another defeat. We had as good treatment as could be expected and that night all went on well. The next day we cut out for my father’s, where we met a large company of people that had been waiting a day and a night for our arrival. We passed the time quite merrily until the company broke up and having gotten my wife, I thought I was completely made up and needed nothing more in the whole world. But I soon found this was all a mistake, for now having a wife, I wanted every thing else and, worse than all, I had nothing to give for it.
I remained a few days at my father’s and then went back to my new father-in-law’s where, to my surprise, I found my old Irish mother in the finest humour in the world.
She gave us two likely cows and calves, which, though it was a small marriage-portion, was still better than I had expected and indeed it was about all I ever got. I rented a small farm and cabin and went to work but I had much trouble to find out a plan to get any thing to put in my house. At this time, my good old friend the Quaker came forward to my assistance and gave me an order to a store for fifteen dollars’ worth of such things as my little wife might choose. With this, we fixed up pretty grand, as we thought, and allowed to get on very well. My wife had a good wheel and knowed exactly how to use it. She was also a good weaver, as most of the Irish are, whether men or women, and being very indus trious with her wheel, she had, in little or no time, a fine web of cloth, ready to make up. She was good at that too and at almost any thing else that a woman could do.
We worked on for some years, renting ground and paying high rent, until I found it wan’t the thing it was cracked up to be and that I couldn’t make a fortune at it at all. So I concluded to quit it and cut out for some new country. In this time we had two sons and I found I was better at increasing my family than my fortune. It was therefore the more necessary that I should hunt some better place to get along; and as I knowed I would have to move at some time I thought it was better to do it before my family got too large so that I might have less to carry.
The Duck and Elk river country was just be ginning to settle, and I determined to try that. I had now one old horse and a couple of two year old colts. They were both broke to the halter and my father-in-law proposed that if I went, he would go with me and take one horse to help me move. So we all fixed up and I packed my two colts with as many of my things as they could bear and away we went across the mountains. We got on well enough and arrived safely in Lincoln county on the head of the Mulberry fork of Elk river. I found this a very rich country and so new that game of different sorts was very plenty. It was here that I began to distinguish myself as a hunter and to lay the foundation for all my future greatness but mighty little did I know of what sort it was going to be. Of deer and smaller game I killed abundance; but the bear had been much hunted in those parts before and were not so plenty as I could have wished. I lived here in the years 1809 and ’10, to the
best of my recollection, and then I moved to Franklin county and settled on Beans creek, where I re mained till after the close of the last war.
CHAPTER 2
With General Jackson’s Army /
The Creek Indian War / I Come
Home and Marry Again
I was living ten miles below Winchester when the Creek war commenced and, as military men are making so much fuss in the world at this time, I must give an account of the part I took in the defence of the country. If it should make me president, why I can’t help it; such things will sometimes happen; and my pluck is never “to seek nor decline office.”
An Autobiography of Davy Crockett Page 4